Time to be Outside!

We've had another fun-filled week. Summer has come to Houston, so we've been outside a lot! Most days, we go out right after breakfast before it gets too hot. Unfortunately, I've had to tell the boys on several occasions that it's too hot to go outside. This morning, they stood at the back door and said, "outside. hot." That's right, boys. It was over 90 degrees before noon!

The boys love the color purple. When the Vitex blossomed
with all the purple flowers, the boys went crazy trying to
pick every one of them!

After church two Sundays ago, Eli (R) and Micah (L)
helped us plant our herb garden and sweet potatoes!
They loved watering them!

This past Thursday, Paul came home early and we got to
go pick blackberries! The boys did great! We went straight
for the bushes with thorns and no one got stuck. Eli and
Micah were very careful only to pick the black ones.
Here's Eli showing his picking technique.

Right before we left, we let the boys sample a few
blackberries. That was probably their favorite part!

Here's Micah with a blackberry bigger than his mouth!

Nana and Papa sent these t-ball sets! Eli didn't want to put
down the ball in his hand to hold the bat with two hands,
but he does pretty well anyway. Daddy is teaching both
boys how to hit "sideways" instead of hitting it like they're
playing "whack a mole."

First of all, sorry that this video is sideways. When Paul had
the idea to spray the water table umbrella with the hose so
that it would "rain" on the boys, we had no idea it would start
spinning! That was even more fun!

Yesterday, we got to go to a friend's house to play. After
swimming, Eli and Micah wanted to play on the swings.
Well, that's great except there was only one baby swing.
We tried Eli on the "big boy swing" and he did great!

After watching Eli for quite a while and deciding it was safe
and may be fun (plus Eli was getting a lot of attention from
Mom and Dad!), Micah decided to try the big swing, too!

House update for those interested: We are still waiting for the appraisal on our current home. Our buyer was supposed to have paid for it on Friday. Maybe it will actually be ordered this week. We can't move forward until that's done.
I can't remember if I posted it here, but we discovered that the roof on the house in Tomball needs to be replaced. As always, God is so good and faithful! The bank that owns that house has agreed to replace it for us! I've never been so happy for a leaking roof! We had the inspection and appraisal on that house and all is well--except for the roof. We are scheduled to close on both houses on June 25, but we're not required to be out of our current home until July 6. That will give us a little time to pack and work on the new house--mostly paint and flooring. Keep praying for us and this process!